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Call the Void
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Instant | casting_cost = | research_cost = | effects = The target Town suffers the following effects, unless protected by or : *Each Town Building has a 50% chance to be destroyed; *Every 1000 residents above the first have a 50% chance of being slain; *Every tile in a 5×5 area centered on the Town has a 50% chance of becoming Corrupted. *Every garrisoned unit is struck with a strength Doom Damage attack; *If the target is an Outpost, it is removed from the map. }} Call the Void is a Very Rare Instant Spell of the Realm. For a base Casting Cost of , it may be cast on the overland map to severely damage a non-friendly Town, including its Town Buildings, citizens, garrison, and even the very land surrounding it. If the target is an Outpost, it will be destroyed immediately. Effects Call the Void is a sudden release of copious amounts of energy in a powerful explosion, centered around the target Town. The explosion will collapse structures, kill citizens, slay or injure units, and render the land around the settlement useless and uninhabitable. Although the effect is incapable of actually destroying the City unless it is a mere Outpost, it will usually take a very long time to recover from. Building Destruction Each Town Building in a Town targeted by Call the Void has a 50% chance of being instantly destroyed. However, structures that are required to build another existing one are exempt from the effect unless every building that requires them is also destroyed. Generally, this means that only the highest tier structures can fall prey to Call the Void. Replaced buildings that are not even visible in the cityscape window will never be affected, as the game only makes one pass over the building list in indexed order, and these structures always have lower indices than the ones replacing them. For instance, if a Town has a Shrine, Temple, and Parthenon, then the Shrine and Temple may never be destroyed by the same effect that collapses the Parthenon. Population Loss When Call the Void strikes a Town, every 1000 residents above the first have a flat 50% chance of being slain. That is, the game generates a random number between 1 and 2 for every point of Population except the very first, and the City will lose as many points as the amount of 1s generated (a 50% chance). Since each point represents 1000 citizens, the Town will lose a total of exactly 1000 times the determined value. For example, if a Town has a Population of 8''', with 8,320 citizens, then the game will roll 7 times. If it rolls three 1s, then a total of 3,000 citizens will be lost, reducing the Population to '''5, with 5,320 residents surviving the calamity. Because the first point of Population is always ignored, Call the Void can never destroy a Town entirely regardless of the outcome of the rolls. However, for Outposts, which have less than 1,000 citizens by definition, the spell is always lethal, and they will be erased from the map if targeted by this spell. Unit Damage Call the Void strikes each and every unit currently stationed inside the target Town with a strength Doom Damage attack. This is a Conventional Damage attack that deals a fixed amount of without allowing any Defense Rolls to be made to reduce it. Therefore, most units will suffer exactly 10 Damage Points from it - which can destroy low tier units outright, and will severely injure anything but the most powerful Fantastic Creatures. However, any units possessing Magic Immunity or Regeneration are exempt from this effect, as are those protected by a Unit Enchantment or Item Power. Corruption Call the Void doesn't just damage a Town, but will also corrupt the landscape around it. Every map tile within a 5 × 5 square centered around the target has an individual 50% chance of becoming afflicted, including the corners that are not actually part of the City's catchment area. Corruption is a persistent negative terrain effect that cancels out all contribution that a tile would grant to the economy of a nearby settlement - Terrain Specials, bonus, bonus, and even availability. This last property is important because it is the main factor that determines a Town's Maximum Population, and consequently Population Growth. While Ocean and Shore tiles are exempt from becoming Corrupted, they typically only have a minor effect on these attributes. Therefore, the overall effect is an average net loss of slightly less than 50% of the City's Maximum Population. Because most Races have an inherent negative modifier to it, Population Growth will often take an even bigger hit than that which, coupled with Call the Void also slaying a large amount of citizens, can completely cripple the economy of the settlement. Corruption is persistent, but it is not necessarily permanent, and removing it from the surrounding tiles will immediately restore their contributions to the Town. While dispel-type magic such as can not disperse this effect, the Town Enchantments and both do. More commonly though, Corruption is removed using units that possess the specialized Purify ability - Shamans and Priests. It is a slow process however, as the cleansers have to visit and spend time on each individual tile. Immunities Call the Void can not affect Towns protected by either or . Both of these Town Enchantments will cause Call the Void to fizzle without being allowed to be re-targeted, wasting its entire Casting Cost. In addition, if the target City has one or more activated Nightshade plants in its catchment area, they will also try to counter Call the Void, although this is subject to the normal rules for dispelling magic. Finally, even if the spell does work, certain Unit Abilities may prevent some garrisoned troops from being affected, as described above. Usage Call the Void may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of . It must be targeted at a Town not owned by the caster. A successful cast results in a massive explosion resembling a nuclear blast, that leaves dark patches of Corruption in its wake. If the City belongs to the human player, the extent of the destruction will be detailed in the summary shown when their next turn begins. Otherwise, the Town must be inspected manually to gauge the spell's effectiveness, although the loss of Population may be reflected immediately by the settlement's graphic shrinking in size. Acquisition As a Very Rare Spell of the Realm, Call the Void may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least Spellbooks. With any less, the spell can normally not be learned during the campaign. This is the minimum requirement for it to be traded for, appear in Treasure, or be found in the spoils of victory when conquering the Fortress of a rival Wizard who already knows it. The base chance for Call the Void to be researchable (at some point) in the campaign is roughly 10% (with books), which gradually increases with the amount of Spellbooks possessed or found during gameplay. With or more, the spell is certain to show up sooner or later, unless acquired from another source. It has a Research Cost of , although its research is quicker for Wizards possessing the Sage Master, and/or Chaos Mastery Retorts; or a bookshelf containing or more. Call the Void may not be acquired at the start of the game, regardless of the amount of books selected from the starting picks. It must always be either researched or found. However, a bug exists in the official game, that may occasionally allow Call the Void to be researched with only books despite its Rarity. This can happen if, and only if, the second Spellbook comes from Treasure, as it then allows a random Very Rare Spell to be researched, which has a flat 10% chance of being this spell. This oversight is corrected in the Unofficial Patch 1.50. Strategy Call the Void has two primary applications. It can be used as an economic attack against an enemy production center, or as a prelude to laying siege to a Town. In either case, the spell will typically leave the targeted City in ruins - and the bigger it is, the greater the destruction. Particularly large settlements, such as Capitals, will take dozens of turns, or even upwards of a hundred to regain their former glory, since the spell strikes on multiple levels, and the affected properties are connected such that damaging them also makes the others more difficult to restore. Because of this, Call the Void is best used against the largest enemy Cities. Multiple casts targeting key Towns of a rival empire can easily lead to it becoming a mere shadow of its former self. However, the Corruption effect, in particular, can be a double-edged sword, as it makes the land surrounding the target uninhabitable. Though the City may become easier to conquer, doing so yields much less of a benefit, and the settlement will also be more difficult to defend if kept. As such, casting Call the Void before a siege is generally only worth it near the end of the game, or if the intent is to raze the Town without building anything in its place. Of course, this may not be the case for a Wizard who also knows the spell, which can remove all Corruption from a City's catchment area a mere turn after it is cast. This allows keeping or replacing the target settlement without having to go through the painstaking process of purifying the nearby tiles one by one with Priests or Shamans. Another spell that can accomplish this feat is . Although it cleanses Corruption slower, it does offer some other advantages to offset that, such as an increased Maximum Population and consequently Population Growth. Naturally, this also means that these Town Enchantments should be looked out for when choosing a target for Call the Void. In fact, , as well as will completely fizzle this spell, so Towns protected by them must be treated as invalid targets even though the game will allow trying to cast Call the Void on them. Similarly, casting on a City with an activated Nightshade is risky, as these plants have a cumulative dispel strength of each. A single one can perform a successful counter with a 1-in-6 chance versus Call the Void's base cost of . Category:Instant Spells Category:Chaos